Sportscar Racing in the 90s

The 1990s started with the glory days of Group C and are ending with the glory days of GT racing. At first sight all would seem well, but, in fact, the switch from Group C to GT racing was painful.

In 1990, Mercedes, Porsche and Jaguar were battling for Group C supremacy, with Mercedes holding the upper hand against Jaguar's fragile V6 powered XJR11 and Porsche's aging 962.

Jaguar wheeled out their trusty V12s to win Le Mans in 90 (which was not part of the championship), whilst Mazda delighted Japan (and probably most of the spectators) by taking a popular win for Wendlinger, Herbert and Gachot in 1991. Probably running with the smallest budget of the Japanese marques, the 3 F1 drivers were expected to be too hard on their car, but managed to shade out the Jaguars, which took 2nd and 3rd. Despite the best efforts of Toyota and Nissan, Mazda remain the only Japanese winners of Le Mans.

Despite the success of Group C, there was a feeling (mainly amongst people keen to make money from it) that sportscar racing "couldn't be understood by race fans". This led to a drop in race length, the scrapping of the fuel economy nature of the class and, finally, to an inexplicable switch to a 3.5 litre, F1 powered class in 1991.

This proved catastrophic for Group C as costs escalated and Jaguar (after winning in 1991 with the great XJR-14, almost an F1 car with a roof) and Mercedes soon departed the scene, leaving only Toyota and Peugeot (who dominated the final years with their 905B) to hold the fort in its final death throes.

The switch to an F1 powered class was all the more reprehensible as it had failed in the 70s and failed again in the 90s. Some say it Group C was getting too popular for F1-goblin, Bernie Ecclestone, and he wanted to get Peugeot and Mercedes to spend their budget in his shop, F1.

The next couple of years were a dead spell for sportscars, only alleviated by Le Mans, which survived only as a pale shadow of the great Group C years.

Thankfully, a group of French drivers, keen to run their Venturis on the track, gave rise to a multi-marque GT series organised by the BPR Organisation. Run by Ratel, Peter and Porsche's Juergen Barth, this series grew rapidly through 1994 and 1995 to see some great McLaren F1 vs Ferrari F40 battles.

In 1995 and 1996, the (slightly) modified McLaren F1 was dominant, with Nielsen/Bscher winning the championship in 1995 and Bellm/Weaver in 1996.

At first, Porsche, stalwarts of GT racing since their first appearances in the late 40s, were slow to react to the supercar element of the series, only fielding modifed GT2 cars against the V12 wonder cars from Woking and Ferraris 80s supercar.

However, it was only a matter of time before Porsche raised the game and it came at Le Mans in 1996 with the unveiling of the Porsche GT1. An unashamed homologation special, with more in common with the 962 series than the 911 it was supposedly based upon, the car swept to second in the 24 Hours and victory in all of the BPR round it participated in. The regular BPR runners came to refer to it as the only runner in 'GT0', although it was ineligible for points in 1996.

1996 proved a turning point for the BPR and sportscar racing as it's increasing popularity saw the FIA step in, after their baby, the technically complicated and near F1 expensive, ITC died with Opel and Alfa’s withdrawal.

1997 started with the unhomologated Mercedes CLK driving a coach & horses through the regulations. The BPR started the slippery slope by allowing the Porsche to race, but the CLK is a travesty, with no road cars built and seemingly no intention of ever building any.

The future of sportscar racing seems unclear. On one hand there are big fields with 20-30 GT1 cars in each race and manufacturer involvement from Mercedes, BMW (McLaren), Porsche and teams like Panoz and Lister making up the numbers impressively. GT2 is healthy, with the front engined Vipers and Marcii up against the ever swift Porsches.

However, there are specials everywhere. The Mercedes are almost as quick as a 3.5 litre Group C car and Nissan and Toyota have GT1 cars ready to race, which are in the same vein.

Recent attempts by Mercedes to switch to sprint race formats was, thankfully, rejected by the other teams (I'd suggest they stick to F1 or go to the STW, if they want sprint racing), but there is the danger of it being too expensive to run competitively, and BMW and Mercedes will only stay involved as long as there is PR to be reaped.

In addition, the Ecclestone threat is ever present, as GT popularity rises. Anything which challenges F1 in the public eye is to be actively disuaded.

Already there is talk of a privateer only series next year, as BMW are withdrawing to concentrate on a Williams built open top Le Mans challenger and Mercedes are thought unlikely to compete, as a works team, without the target of BMW to beat. This will probably be a good thing, as budgets are likely to, at least, stabilise without the factory might behind the programmes.